Browder vs. Gayle

Claudette Calvin, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith,Aurelia Browder, and Jeanette Reese who fought in the Browder vs Gayle case for the desegregation of Montgomery buses.

Aurelia Browder was an African American civil rights activist who fought for the desegregation of Montgomery buses against the mayor of Montgomery, W.A. Gayle. She was arrested April 19, 1955, (7 months before Rosa Parks,) for refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white person. Browder, along with four other women, (Colvin, McDonald, Smith, and Reese) agreed to become plaintiffs in the case, and on February 1, 1956, the case Browder vs Gayle was filed in the U.S. District Court. They argued that the buses stripped people of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, so these women fought for what they believed to be social justice and equal rights for all bus riders.

Audience at the First Baptist Church during a standing ovation for leaders of the bus boycott

A large group of African Americans outside the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, after arraignment for participation in the bus boycott.

The precedent of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 was applied to the Browder case as it was heard in the United States District Court before a three-judge panel. The case had not been completed until it was heard by the United States Supreme Court. November 13, 1956 proved to be a very historical and life-changing day for blacks in Montgomery when the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of motor buses in the city of Montgomery was unconstitutional.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_browder_v_gayle/

http://www.tolerance.org/article/browder-v-gayle-women-rosa-parks